mitch mcconnell, his leader, majority leader does, and he made that clear. it's going to be a question of whether mccanonnell is going toe okay with this. his decision whether he'll be okay, he being mcconnell, is simple math. if it's not just flake and he has susan collins and murkowski, he just needs one other senator to agree. mcconnell won't have a choice -- >> unless joe manchester-- >> it is the white house, the president, who has to okay an fbi investigation. they have said flat out, no, we're not going to do that. >> then they won't get their nominee. >> but the pressure again, just like it is on mitch mcconnell, to do this, to say we're going to do this fbi investigation, which is going to have a limited time, limited scope for one week, a general men and women's agreement. so those are the two outstanding factors right now about whether this week-long delay is actually going to happen, mitch mcconnell and the president of the united states. >> you know how the president feels about the fbi, deep state, all the rest of it. the president is going to

but, in the end, mitch mcconnell and it really isn't mitch mcconnell and schumer. it's mitch mcconnell as the majority leader who sets the schedule on the senate floor. >> harris: senator graham mentioned them both. >> no, no. i'm just saying mitch mcconnell is going to make this decision and he is going to look at the votes. flake sounds like, he didn't say it, but it sounds like he would not vote for the nomination unless there were an fbi investigation. now, you go to the two other republicans out there that you have mentioned murkowski and collins. if they say yeah, we would vote for it anyway. we don't need that then we will go ahead and vote on tuesday, on the other hangsd if f. they join with flake we agree there should be a week's pause. fbi investigation and no vote until, then suddenly, mitch mcconnell does not have the votes to pass this nomination and is he going to have to agree to this and democrats, you know, are going to just count their lucky stars and say who knows, given the events of the last two weeks, who knows what could come up about brett k

it is not up to mitch mcconnell whether or not up to mitch mcconnell whether or not the fbi carry out this investigation. yes, that is also true. it is up to thejustice department, but of course that is overseen by the man who who has threatened to fire the head of the justice department, that is donald trump. we will have to see his twitter feed and see how he reacts. he won't not be happy. even if mitch mcconnell says we accept the fbi and we have to delay this, donald trump could upset everything. farfrom clarifying matters tonight, sorry, folks, we've really introduce more pieces in what is wearing to be a moving puzzle for several days. briefly. what do you think now are the chances that brett kavanaugh ever taking up his seat on the supreme court? absolutely up in the air because you are talking about a senate which is almost evenly split with a handful of senators, probably three republicans and two democrats are the key to his future. beyond that, we have got a country as you have been discussing, is not only split, but people are gambling on display. donald trump are gambling

we don't know if it's granted because that's up to mitch mcconnell. what has to happen? the president and the justice department send a memo? >> my sense is the white house will have to work out with the fbi assuming this goes forward. the republicans who want it seem to have the leverage to make it happen. the white house will have to work out the scope of the investigation with the fbi. this would be the fbi reopening the back ground check on brett kavanaugh, and there is precedent for this. this is exactly what happened in the clarence thomas/anita hill matter in 1991. thefy tie did fbi did a three-d and came back with a report inconclusive, ali. i don't know that it's been made public. famously joe biden lamented the fact that it was inconclusive. republicans have been playing that clip of biden saying that in order to suggest that the fbi investigation doesn't get you anything. but in this case there are key witnesses who have never been interviewed under penalty of lying to the fbi. for example, mark judge, who is alleged to have been in the room, that's the first

it means that mitch mcconnell doesn't have the 50 votes to confirm. they will get whatever they demand. if the white house doesn't give in then perhaps they are sinking the nomination of this man. there are a couple of interesting back stories here. one is that senator chris coons was a central player in this drama. he and jeff flake have long had a personal friendship and when coons showed up to the hearing today, he was visibly emotional. he's a very polite guy. he used some inappropriate language in a very emotional more sad than angry way. very unlike senator coons. then you saw all of them go behind closed doors and this unfolded. coons is something of an institutionalist. he cares about the body. that's not always the focus. there's a lot of people here who have higher ambitions. he loves being a senator. i think you saw in the back and forth a reflection that the two of them have on how broken this process is and it's an attempt to fix this. that one week time frame is very important. why is that? a lot of republicans who are really dug in on t

mitch mcconnell knows the outcome. he has not heard one word from dr. ford, but he knows he is going to plow right through it. mitch mcconnell does not have a public record of lying when he says he has the votes to get something through the senate. and that's what he said today, he has the votes. so the question tonight about those republican votes in the senate is mitch mcconnell lying or is senator susan collins lying when she says that she's undecided? is senator lisa murkowski lying when she says she's undecided? is senator jeff flake lying when he says that he wants to hear the testimony of dr. ford? why would jeff flake need to hear that testimony? mitch mcconnell just said he has jeff flake's vote in his pocket right now. it's a done deal. the democrat senator's letter to chairman grassley says there's not an effort to get -- this is not an effort to get to the truth. we fear that rather than learning from the pass senate republicans and the trump administration are repeating this committee's repeated mistakes and making new ones. up to this poin

. >> we saw mitch mcconnell call out the smear tactics of the democrat party. they have taken every extreme measure to keep this come nation from going through. the new yorker story, the holes that are there, the accuser can't name one person who was with her. it took her six days to come up with her recollection. she needed a lawyer there. judge kavanaugh has a record, he is a good person and has a right to defend himself. charles: we'll have a chance to hear from the accuser and the accused. christine blasey ford wrote a letter to no grassley. she says while mr. kavanaugh's actions were serious and had an impact on my life. i thought his actions could be useful for you in choosing among the various candidates. it seems like almost everyone decided who they believe. >> i think every allegation needs to be taken seriously. chairman grassley has gone above and beyond. but judge kavanaugh has the opportunity to defend himself. the thing that's so concerning is how the democrats handled this. they put this judicial nomination process into a frenzy. we have 202 arr

so definitely a very confident statement from mitch mcconnell there, but he's trying to reassure the republican base at this point. this is an issue that republican candidates, especially the president, have campaigned on, filling more conservative judges on the court. this is a way to galvanize them ahead of the midterms. many believed kavanaugh would have gotten elected before the midterm elections. however, with this delay this could further delay a lot of excitement that conservatives had over this. this is mitch mcconnell reassuring his base at this point. >>> the justice department pushing back on a "new york times" report that in may of 2017 deputy attorney general rod rosenstein floated the idea of secretly recording president trump to expose the chaos in the white house, and that he also discussed recruiting cabinet members like john kelly to invoke the 25th amendment. all of this reportedly happened shortly after james comey was fired. sources say that it's unclear whether rosenstein was serious or just being sarcastic when he made the comment about wearing a wire. the just

mitch mcconnell and paul ryan are against doing that at all costs. they have tried to pass a series of packages of appropriations bills to at least get most of the government put on full-year funding and leaving the homeland security, justice department, commerce department, as sort of a stopgap through the election. that is the plan, but it could run into some turbulent times it president trump really insists on vetoing some of these bills. he has signed the first of these packages which would at least reduce the impact of any shutdown to more of a partial shutdown. >> the house has been out for summer recess. the senate has mostly been in. you mentioned some of those spending bill packages, but could you give us a sort of an overview, a round up of the packages that have been passed, what their status is. the senate passing nine of 12, the house passing six. >> they are calling them minibuses, three parts, legislative affairs, which funds congress itself, military construction and veterans affairs bill that funds the be a, it has the energy and wat

senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and house speaker paul ryan are intent on avoiding that at all costs. they have set up a strategy were they will try to pass serious packages of appropriations bills. most of the government on a full year funding and leaving homeland security, the state department, the justice department and,'s department on a stopgap through the election and that's the planet to september but it could run it to some turbulent times toward the end if donald trump insists on redoing some of these bills. he is showing some willingness to assign the first of these packages funding the government like veterans affairs and that would at least reduce the impact of any shutdown, more of a partial shutdown. >> the house has been out for summer recess and there are a couple of breaks here or there. you mentioned some of the spending bill packages but could you give us an overview of the packages that have been passed and what their status is, the senate passing nine of 12 and a house passing sex? >> -- passing six? there are three parts, the legislative affairs bill which

mitch mcconnell has actually been very good at driving. this i don't think he lies these delays from what i hear from people i talked to on capitol hill, he doesn't like this delay at all. i do think senator grassley, the chairman of the senate judiciary committee has been masterful, his balance, his tone, the options. i think he has done a very good job so far. >> dana: speaking of mitch mcconnell he was strategic and patient and took a lot of criticism and risk by delaying or denying merrick garland a hearing. >> he did. he took a tough, tough line. i come from the camp that says as the committee chairman you don't enter into negotiation when you invite somebody to come before your committee. that's not the start of a negotiation. but, again, i think grassley in conjunction with mitch mcconnell, they have bent over backwards. you can't just continual to let this go on in per pew throughout. >> what about the ghants that lead brett kavanaugh speak first? why would they agree to that when he hasn't even heard the actual story against him?

mitch mcconnell is speaking at the values voters summit saying we will follow through. people are mindful on capitol hill. would they be willing to do that? it might look bad and go back to what one republican senator, the indication is they want to hear from her but this cannot go on forever and the judiciary committee and attorney for ford are so far apart that we are never going to hear from her, they can't agree to terms especially in a speedy period of time. >> what are your sources saying about diane feinstein? she kept the letter for six weeks and kept it secret basically, she did not call for closed-door hearings, could never have been here. senators would have been doing their due diligence carrying out the law of the constitution and instead it leaked out and some are accusing democrats of making this a hand grenades, throwing a bombshell to derail the confirmation and move it past as close to the midterms as you can make it and make it a total political spectacle to favor the democrats in the midterm. >> we always knew this would impact the midterm election.

this all lands at the doorstep of mitch mcconnell. what kinds of discussions are going on as we speak? >> reporter: well, senator libbed sigh grah lindsey graham, who you heard at the end of that chaotic exchange is heading to the capitol to talk to senator mitch mcconnell about exactly what to do. and we do know we have seen when the president has come out with a more measured tone, it means he's listening to the senate leaders up on the hill. and the reality here is that this nomination is potentially in peril. senator mcconnell's strategy all the way along has been to push as hard as possible, as fast as possible, try to not let any crack show up. because the reality is, all the way along, republicans may not be saying it in public, but there is a risk for them in having the fbi start to look into this. there are a lot of questions about mark judge, who was not subpoenaed, and that was one of the demands susan collins made. they had only heard from his lawyer. there are going to be a lot of additional questions here in the coming d

the white house before were not saying this was a smear neither was mitch mcconnell. they were saying she doesn't remember, she has no evidence to back it up, et cetera, et cetera. now they're saying this is a smear, a political strategy to get kavanaugh away from his chances of ever being confirmed to the supreme court. that's not what would he were seeing a few days ago before this allegation came out in "the new yorker" last night. we saw that not only with senate majority leader mcconnell with smear on repeat and also kellyanne conway's interview this morning saying she believed this was some left-wing conspiracy out to get brett kavanaugh. and president trump himself saying this is all political. you're right, they are pushing these two allegations together. one they're saying doesn't have simply enough sourcing, pointing to the fact that "the new york times" interviewed dozens of people and couldn't find flynn to corroborate this information but they're only focusing on this allegation. they're not focusing on the woman who's coming to washington on thursday to

mitch mcconnell complains about the process. democrats say cry me a river. don't give us this process garbage, because you didn't even give merrick garland a hearing, let alone a confirmation vote. so all of this simmering rage about the future of the supreme court, what did or didn't happen in 2016, is playing itself out. tactically, politically, and potentially if kavanaugh is confirmed, legally for the next 20 years. >> mainly, let me push back on something you said. i don't think republicans are trying to ram the process. we had a hearing. these allegations come after the hearing, at the very last minute. i mean, let's try to be a little bit objective here. i mean, it's a suspicion that the allegations come at the very last minute. they're not substantiated. >> no. >> no? >> and they could be substantialed if there was an investigation. i think the senate majority leader calling this a smear campaign is a small dog whistle to the base of the republican party. maybe even trump's base, suggesting he doesn't believe these women. suggesting that there's no t

mitch mcconnell taking questions from reporters. the brett kavanaugh hearings and what will or will not happen with the accuser, christine ford, at the top of conversations among republicans, among democrats, at the white house as well. again, we should remind you that brett kavanaugh is at the white house right now. it is the second day he's been at the white house, in something of a war room, trying to strategize on how to save his nomination. presumably he is with don mcgahn, the white house counsel, the man who has ushered him through this process. and also, guys, we have this other bit of news, the president having a bilateral news conference with the president of poland, andrzej duda. we are waiting for the president to come out there. we believe that a reporter or two will ask some questions about kavanaugh or potentially about the declassification of those documents. jill abramson and jake sherman are still with us. jake, i want to go to you. what do you make of the republicans saying the democrats are not playing fairly her

and you heard that from mitch mcconnell. and i think it looks as if it will go forward because they are trying to separate it from the second allegation. and what is interesting is that oftentimes when you have one allegation like this and it gives way to a drumbeat of other allegations or it kind of builds on itself, politically it becomes untenable for the person who -- the individual being accused. and we've almost seen the opposite in this. and really we've seen it shift. and so that republicans are doing this, you know, campaign to say this is a smear campaign and that these aren't valid allegations rather than -- and hardening rather than kavanaugh softening and them sort of distancing themselves. and that underscores the broader picture which is that this is such an important thing for republicans. and they just really want to get it done. >> so leeann, with senator mcconnell saying this will be voted on in the senate up or down, he said judge kavanaugh and the american people deserve that, is there doubt in the mind

mitch mcconnell's sound zero on the head of the midterms on g.o.p. control of the senate what's behind his concerns we'll take a look on this edition. of politicking on larry king on tuesday senate majority leader mitch mcconnell acknowledged the difficulty republicans will facing in a handful of competitive races the outcomes of which decides whether the senate remains under g.o.p. or democratic control mcconnell even lie given some of these close races to a knife fight in an alley how likely are the democrats to flip those republican seats and what is was hollow have up his sleeve to prevent that from happening. i was stunned that with our panel they are chris wilson in washington d.c. he was director of research of digital strategies the ted cruzes twenty six president. and brian joyce host of the brian joy's show on talk radio w g o w have him bryan joins us from chattanooga all right chris what was your reaction to mitch mcconnell's tom and so about of concern of the g.o.p. keep the good drole well i think mitch mcconnell is doing his job is job

the message from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell today.sen. mitch mcconnell:"keep the faith. don't get rattled by all of this."his bottom line ... forget the supreme court controversy and vote republican.sen. mitch mcconnell:"we can hold onto the senate majority for two more years. we're going to transform the federal judiciary."the president, who's predicted a red wave in november, modifying his message on the stump thursday night in las vegas,where he was joined by endangered g-o-p senator dean heller.president trump:"promise me! you gotta get out for the mid .... don't be complacent. you gotta get out for the midterms."though democrats hold a narrow path to the senate majority, the president is not holding back, calling out heller's opponent, jackie rosen, by name, sort of. president trump:"a vote for wacky jackie is a vote for the extreme agenda of those people."next, president trump heads to missouri as part of his ramped up campaign schedule ahead of the election. president trump:"it's like this. it's like this. if somebody has a cold, we don't have a majority that day.

we have protests going on capitol hill and it's clear that mitch mcconnell is saying, look, this thing needs to go forward. >> bret: trace, that's about as heat you had as the senate majority leader ever gets on the senate floor talking about this process and how he feels that brett kavanaugh has been mistreated by the action of senate democrats and holding the original allegation since back in july and now this other allegation for more than a week. detailing how the "new york times" wouldn't go forward with the story because they had no corroborating witness to this latest accuser. so we are in a different place here in washington ahead of this hearing on thursday, which is going to be, as you can see, heated and much watched. >> trace: yeah. i know you and martha are going to be covering this thing. one ear on the road going on in the white house and one ear on the kavanaugh hearings. it's going to be a lot to cover. i'm struck by the fact that mcconnell was on there and he was talking about the smear campaign. that's the exact word damage that judge kavanaugh used in his letter thi

>> mitch mcconnell about to address theland. earlier toe mcconnell vowed to move forward saying these allegations don't reflect the man he knows. >> so this alleged incident is completely at variance with his entire life history. he welcomes the opportunity to address the committee about this claim. >> dana: bret baier is the anchor of "special report." we're fortunate to have him today. already the republicans are going to be delayed in getting this nomination confirmed if indeed it does finally get confirmed. because they would hope to have a vote on thursday. that now is put off. >> that's right. this public hearing is set for monday. we just don't know whether it's going forward or not. if dr. ford doesn't show up, decides not to come, what then happens? and i think you've seen republicans huddling on capitol hill looking into that. you just had a letter come out from the senate judiciary committee staff saying that they have moved forward to start the interview process laying the groundwork for this public hearing. they int

on friday mitch mcconnell pledged to, quote, plow right through. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, september 24th and with us we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, associate editor of commentary magazine and msnbc contributor noah roth man, former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie d.c. on msnbc kasie hunt is with us as the supreme court story unfolds this week it's important to keep tabs on a number of other big developments we will speak with "the new york times" reporter who broke the news that deputy attorney general rod rosenstein talked abou

mitch mcconnell announced it publicly today, and yet it's a secret, hiring of a public employee in the united states senate is a secret? what has to be secret about that? >> i mean, this whole thing is strange, right? i mean, there will be in that hearing room, we expect, democratic senators asking questions of brett kavanagh and christine blasey ford. and then when it's the republican senators' time, they will not say anything and instead they will defer to this pinch hitter, this outside counsel who has come in. that does not happen in confirmation hearings. we think that it hasn't happened in decades, if at all, in modern times. that announcement that they were going to do that over the objections of one of the two witnesses at the hearing, and then the announcement that they had hired somebody but we're not allowed to know who it is, it's all so weird. >> you know, i'm ready to stand corrected by a senate historian, but i believe there has never been, never been outside counsel asking questions in a confirmation hearing. only in the major and unusual and special investigation heari

all these races, as mitch mcconnell said are tied. the bottom line is generally they're all going to go almost one way. you have surges at the end. it could come back it's a big republican year in the senate and they're safe, especially if they win florida and north dakota and montana which looks like today they might. >> republicans will be tester -- >> i think those are the four that have better chances than any other state. >> i don't see that. >> there's a difference between having a chance of being successful. what republicans have to worry about and what mitch mcconnell is talking about is, regardless of how weak in the bad territory some of these democrats are running in, they're in places where lower races may help them. gillum may help pull nelson over the line. you have what's going on in tennessee right now. in a wave election you always have people losing who you don't anticipate. if you asked me a month ago does beto o'rourke on beating cruz, i would say no. >> a wave is a wave. >> mitch mcconnell knows if he sits back th

of politicking on larry king on tuesday senate majority leader mitch mcconnell acknowledged the difficulty republicans are facing in a handful of competitive races the outcomes of which decides whether the senate remains under g.o.p. or democratic control. mcconnell even lie given some of these close races to a nice light. how likely are the democrats to flip those republican seats and what is with home up his sleeve to prevent that from happening i was stunned that with our panel they are chris wilson in washington d.c. he was director of research a digital strategy that ted cruz is twenty six president. and brian joyce host of the brian joyce show on talk radio w g o w have him brian joins us from chattanooga all right chris what was your reaction to mitch mcconnell's tom and so about of concern of the g.o.p. drole well i think mitch mcconnell is doing his job is job is to be the chief fundraiser to make sure that republicans have enough money to be able to defend their seats but if you look at these seats one by one as you mentioned i worked for senator cruz in the sixteen campaign work

mitch mcconnell warned that this would happen. the republicans have stayed united. there were a few nominees that were blocked. overall, they really ran them through. donerats have not been -- all they can. we are major judicial confirmations, 68 by the first week of september in the senate. other deadlines in september. we have the farm bill, a big issue in railamerica that is going to expire at the end of the month. we have federal aviation administration authorities. a real desire to get something done on opioids. the plate is full for congress in the coming weeks. >> we will continue to follow you on twitter and your handle. thank you so much for all of the insight. >> thank you so much. us for book tv's live coverage of the 18th annual library of congress national book festival. saturday, starting at 10:00 eastern. are set ate includes the washington convention center with john meacham and his book. doris kearns goodwin with "leadership and regular times -- in turbulent times." watch the 18th annual library of congress national book festival, live on c-span two

mitch mcconnell does not like unpredictability. >> can i be cynical? i think donald trump saying he's keeping an open mind is not true. i think this is a messaging thing that republicans are doing, because the republicans have really signaled that they're not really being open minded. that they have already pretty much made up their mind. >> every republican? you don't think susan collins? >> right, we have two senators who basically are keeping open minds. the rest of them have spoken very much like this is going to happen. there's going to be a vote. you know, he's probably going to make it. and so i think they're trying to shift on the messaging to say, oh, we're having this hearing and we're really open minded, but i don't really believe that donald trump is going to change his mind based on anything that dr. ford says. >> senators are arriving. also getting in a tweet from the attorney representing debbie ramirez, another woman making these serious allegations against judge kavanaugh, debbie ramirez, who knew him at yale university. john clune, th

i think mitch mcconnell does a disservice to turn this into a partisan fight. whatever's -- whether feinstein could have acted differently in therms of sharing the -- the terms of sharing the letter or differently, is totally irrelevant. susan collins' attitude is the right one. and senators and the white house should stop playing partisan games and say let's try to find out the truth. one thing i would add, i'm not sure we won't -- they'll testify under oath. they'll be pushed on various details. there are others, this is -- you know, this other man -- >> mark judge, who denies it. he it says didn't happen. >> okay. let's see him testify. let's see him talk about that. and there may be others who have con temperature rainious evidence that -- contemporaneous evidence that sheds light. i think susan collins' tone was right. i think mitch mcconnell did a disservice to judge kavanaugh who i'm told urged the white house to take the they took with kellyanne conway. to say, look, we cannot -- this is not true. kavanaugh says to his friends, this is absolutely false,

to mitch mcconnell's thomas about a concern of a deal d.g. briggs a troll i think mitch mcconnell is doing his job his job is to be the chief fundraiser to make sure that republicans have enough money to be able to defend their seats but if you look at these seats one by one as you mentioned i worked for senator cruz in a sixteen campaign working for his in his eighteen real act there are four seats on the democrat side there are more likely to go republican in two you get to the first republican seat likely to get go democrat and those are in north dakota heidi heitkamp is likely to lose to kevin kramer in montana jon tester is likely to you lose to matt rosendale in indiana joe donnelly is likely to you lose to my braun and in missouri you have claire mccaskill likely you'd lose to josh ali and so you get through those four before you get to the first republican competitive seat which is a nevada so i gotta say i really like where we republicans sit right now far more than i would like it if i were democrats and to be clear that's not usual

mitch mcconnell, this is a senate decision. the only decision the white house makes is who are they nominating and helping the nominee get prepped. the decision on how to proceed and when to proceed is an institutional senate decision. it's their body making that decision. and i think they are wise to proceed while giving her time, when the story broke, saying she deserves to be heard and she is being afforded that opportunity which is important, we need to hear from her. that's why i can't imagine she will not step forward having made the accusation. >> harris: the president says the fbi should not be involved in investigating kavanaugh, let's watch. >> i don't think the fbi should be involved because they don't want to be involved. if they wanted to be i would do that but they say this is not really their thing. i think politically speaking, the senators will do a very good job, they are going to open it up and they will do a very good job. >> harris: the fbi said it handed over some of its notes and documents to the white ho

mitch mcconnell at some point he may have the votes, but at some point mitch mcconnell may have to look at the numbers. brett kavanaugh was already historically unpopular pick. >> yeah. >> you would have to go back quite some time to find another one that was as unpopular as he was. mitch mcconnell has to start asking himself do we want to stand by brett kavanaugh, possibly lose the senate, or do we just go to the federalist society, have them pick another conservative jurist and put him or her -- >> right. >> -- or her -- wouldn't be a bad idea -- a her up for nomination to the supreme court. >> there are a lot of reasons perhaps not to confirm brett kavanaugh, but if the dems play really dirty on this i don't think that's good for politics and for both sides. it's what we're dealing with in the white house. >>> still ahead, there are 50 days until the midterms and new polling shows tight senate races in two states donald trump won by double digits in 2016. we're digging into those numbers as well as new concerns for the republican party next on "morning joe." what if numbers tell only

to disrupten willing the best laid plans of mitch mcconnell but maybe not this case. for the questioning, it will be interesting to see how he responds to questions about executive power and privilege. he has made comments that raise eyebrows about whether a sitting president can be indicted and whether he can be charged with crimes. that is all very relevant to the robert mueller investigation. chris coons, the delaware democrat says he thinks brett kavanaugh should expect a lot of questions on that very question. been dealing has with executive nominations, judicial nominations, a lot of nominees to the circuit court and district court. how has the senate been able to rapidly go through all of these nominations? nobecause the filibuster is longer with us, the democrats are not has empowered as they have been in the past -- are not as empowered as they have been in the past. warned thisell would happen. the republicans have stayed united. a few occasions where nominees but overall,cked democrats have not done all they can. 660re seeing a confirmation. there are a lot

this is what mitch mcconnell was telling the white house. brett kavanaugh already got into trouble up here in his first runs at confirmation hearings for the judgeship he has now, and mitch mcconnell saw this coming. >> and it makes me wonder why the white house went ahead with kavanaugh in the first place. i touched on this in my "daily beast" column today. there are plenty of people out there who are just about every bit as conservative as brett kavanaugh who didn't have this kind of paper trail, who didn't spend all those years working in the bush white house, who didn't have these problematic confirmation hearings before in 2004 and 2006. i'm a little mystified by why the white house chose him, but the only theory i have is they did it because they could, just like the republicans did what they did to merrick garland in 2016, because they could. it looks like they'll probably get away with this one, too, although we'll see over the next few days how much pressure can be built in maine and in alaska on susan collins and lisa murkowski, be

mcconnell, he's not a man who's given to exaggeration. when he says something like that so definitive, that sends a very strong signal that he's moving forward. in fact he said that despite the opposition, we are plowing forward and moving ahead. >> what about the president's tweets today? the second one today this morning, i have no doubt that if the attack on dr. ford was as bad as she said, charges would be immediately filed with law enforcement authorities either by her loving parents. i asked that she bring the filings forward so that we can learn date, time, in place. you heard susan collins saying

mitch mcconnell's calling the vote on friday. i mean, he's trying to make this seem like this is said and done, doesn't really matter what dr. ford says, they're going to move on. it's no coincidence that brett kavanaugh did that interview on fox news, that donald trump is talking about it. that mitch mcconnell said over the weekend we're going to plow through. so if these women want to go through with it, it's going to be very hard and they're going to have to show up on thursday. otherwise, their failure to show up is going to be painted as a concession. >> obviously, kirsten, ms. ramirez is not invited thursday, and obviously it seems like the gop side is saying they want more information before figuring out next steps if there are in fact any. but to amanda's point it doesn't seem like there's going to be -- there's no appetite for an fbi investigation on the republican side or the white house. >> that doesn't mean people shouldn't continue to ask for it. i think we should still expect them to want to get to the truth. the fa

mitch mcconnell. i'm curious to know what that reason is. >> he's a dummy. >> he may have known about this. he knows there are problems with him. so i think that alone is an indication that he's in very, very serious jeopardy. they may choose to withdraw him. it's telling that conway is saying what she's saying. we know trump is schizophrenic. he might tweet something else today. this is bad. there is a war on women. we know that. this is going to be costly. they may lose the senate because of it. >> you know this hear better than rest of us. a spokesperson for biden, the chair of the committee during the clarence thomas confirmation released this. quote, vice president biden believes professor ford deserves a fair and respectful hearing of her allegations and that the committee should undertake a thorough and nonpartisan effort to get to the truth wherever it leads. the vote should be postponed to allow this to happen. because this is an appointment for life. and getting the decision right is more im

mitch mcconnell is sticking with brett kavanaugh. this is how he sees relations between the sexes, and he is going to go down with brett kavanaugh and probably he is going to win with brett kavanaugh because he's in charge of the republican party, and most of the republican senators -- all of these so-called independents, you know, jeff flake, ben sasse, corker, they all fold. they are complete political cowards. you know, maybe murkowski and collins, like with aca, will stand up, but there's no chance these republicans will defy him on this. >> you know, what trump was always trying to do today was to play to the base obviously when he talked about schumer and his buddies, laughing at how they con you all, you know, and it is a shame and this is this big fat con job. that's not directed really towards the senate, which it actually takes the votes. it is directed towards the base, which was getting worried if you listen to rush limbaugh, which is getting worried that the president, you know, could lose this or was going soft on this.

we saw it continue with mitch mcconnell throughout the day calling it a smear. they're going on offense. clearly president trump endorsed that interview. what's being done is really unfair. secondly what we had heard throughout the weekend is that white house officials feared a second accuser coming forward. not because they feared it was true, but because this first story could inspire others to come forward. that is the concern in the white house and that is likely why they're changing their strategy in the last few days before he does go to testify. >> i think from the republican point of view it is. they're trying to get through the committee vote. there is a vote of the full senate, they don't want to have to shift their strategy on the committee vote. this is leaning forward into this, brett kavanaugh, although he has the ivy league law pedigree, he's been a part of a lot of republican political battles over the years, and his experience tells him, you can't shy away from this, you have to lean into it, he has his wife in this interview saying, he wants to

mitch mcconnell is signaling that in no uncertain terms he will move forward with an up or down vote on the senate floor, but all eyes are on these three possible republican holdouts, these three republican senators that are really in question, have been from beginning but especially today. sunlen serfaty has that on capitol hill. what's the latest there? >> well, kate, certainly as mitch mcconnell pushes ahead and says he is pushing ahead with an up or down vote some time soon, he said some time in the near future on the senate floor, as he says that, though, it certainly is significant that these key swing vote senators, of course, we talked about them a lot in recent days, like like lisa murkowski, she made a significant statement this morning to my colleague manu raju which is not in line with the rest of her party says, indicating she believes an fbi investigation over all of these allegations would do a lot to clear the air. here's what she said earlier this morning. >> senator, do you think there should be a full fbi investigation into these allegations from kavanaugh's past?

tell me what's happening in mitch mcconnell's office. >> there is a huddle going on right now in mitch mcconnell's office over on the senate side of the capitol. i just came from there. there is a flurry of activities, republican senators racing in and out. and i spoke with senator lisa murkowski as she was going into the majority leader's office and headed into this huddle with other top republicans and asked her about the specific proposal from jeff flake for this one-week delay for an investigation to happen. she said she supports it. she notably says i support the fbi having an opportunity to have some closure on this. she importantly did say it has to be limited in scope. as we're seeing republicans and some democrats like joe manchin add his support to the delay. i talked to a top republican, senator cornyn, on the way in. he said they are certainly exploring jeff flake's proposal. he is not in support of it but he gave an assurance that he would look into this. he emphasized the promise made to senator flake was to look at specifically the fbi reopening the allegations based aro

i don't think mitch mcconnell will think that way. he will think if i've got the votes he's going to do it, try to get it through and it's been a lifelong crew said for him. >> i know you guys have new reporting on the midterms and major missteps that republicans have made ahead of them. what did you find? >> you saw a little bit of this over the weekend. the president's twitter feed where he's starting to point fingers and say if we didn't have all these retirements, if we didn't have mueller out there my numbers would be through the roof and we wouldn't lose seats in november. republicans are kicking themselves. they know this was a once in a generation chance to cement a republican majority. that senate map is an awesome map for republicans. in truth these house districts are carved up to help republicans because of redistricting over the last 20 years and republicans are rich, they should be raising so much more money than democrats. they're not raising more money than democrats, looks like they'll lose the house, they're probably

and josh holmes, mitch mcconnell's former chief of staff and now a g.o.p. strategist. katie, where'd you come down the revelations both from the anonymous essay and also from bob woodward's book that there is a resistance inside the administration, people acting to thwart the president's directives and overall, how damaging do you think this week has been to the president? >> politically i don't think it was damaging at all. i think people have actually look at the story inside it's more palace intrigue. we don't know this person is. if they are not willing to put their name on it than we are not going to necessarily be concerned with what they have to say. inside the white house it is a huge distraction. when it comes to what this "new york times" op-ed says, they said they were trying to thwart the president's worst intentions or instincts. define what that is because based on my conversations with white house officials and off